Crystal Tears
by phoenixreal
Summary: Gin Ichimaru is in search of illegal prostitution rings and brothels in Tokyo. In his search, he comes across what sounds like an underage prostitution ring. Once inside, he finds that there is window dressing to this place, and the dolls inside the Dollhouse Brothel aren't underage at all. He becomes embroiled in plots that are deeper than they first appear. How far will he go?
1. Inside the Dollhouse

**Crystal Tears**

**Chapter One**

_Inside the Dollhouse_

Gin Ichimaru looked like the type of person that would be down in the warehouse district looking for something less than legal. His silvery hair hung eternally in his eyes, and he had a perpetual smile on his face. He was one of those people that just looked sneaky. The way he moved was something that fed more into this image. He had a way of moving without people realizing he had done so, and they often didn't realize he was behind them. He wore suits and ties with plain white shirts, nothing special, and in fact, he was rather unnoticeable most of the time. Then, when people spoke to him, they got a feeling he was a strange fellow. He just was not a trustworthy soul, most people would say. Sort of creepy was another thing people said about him. Some people went farther and said he was a pure snake. He was difficult to trust and that made him perfect for this job. No one could lie as well as he could, and no one could walk into the most disturbing situations without a flinch of surprise like he could.

Gin had been on murder scenes where bodies were dismembered and he was able to walk through them with composure. He'd seen some grisly torture scenes from local gangs fighting with each other, people torn apart literally, and he always seemed unfazed. People described him as cold, some called him the ice snake, and he didn't mind. It went with his image, and he had to maintain his image more than anything. To be honest, it wasn't that it didn't bother him, it bothered him as much as anyone else, he was simply better and handling these things than other people. His division in the organization he worked for often handled the dismal and hopeless, so it was no surprise than his current mission was under his purview. These people down in this area were in the depths of despair in which no one could reach.

That's why he stood now with a private keycard into a slum warehouse in downtown Tokyo. He'd come a long way to get here, and spent the last three weeks buy hookers and rent boys and paying them to leave when he got frustrated with them. They weren't what he was looking for. No, he was looking for something special indeed. Something that the typical red light district didn't have. The laws were rather unclear when it came to purchasing companionship. Both female and male prostitutes walked the streets as cops passed them by. Love motels set up shop and no one batted an eye, as long as no one was "pimping" or running them like a brothel, they were left alone, like the group of hookers he worked with to find this place. They called themselves the Visored because they identified themselves by working with a fabric mask when they were on the streets. People knew not to mess with them because they knew they would have back up. They were a group that protected each other, and were more like a family than anything, and worked out of a Love Motel called the Dangai.

Coincidentally, the Rukongai motel was actually managed by the sister of one of Gin's fellows in law enforcement, and owned by his family. It had been more than handy lately because of the information that they often had to offer. They had got him to this place, however. That was more than enough. He was curious because the girl that had been approached looked very child-like, which was why they were suspicious. A couple of the others had mentioned something about a place that dealt in "underage" tastes, and that was quite illegal.

Gin entered the building and there was a nondescript looking monitor over a row of eight drawers. In front of these drawers was a table with a simple binder on it. The monitor lit up and words appeared on the screen with a computerized voice.

"Welcome to the Dollhouse. Pick a sweet for yourself from the binder. Make your choice. Place requested fee inside the drawer with the number matching your choice. You will receive a key. Proceed up the stairs to your left to the designated room. Use the key and enjoy your stay. Replace the key in the drawer upon leaving. Remember, you have received a great privilege to come here. Thank you."

Gin opened the binder, unsurprised at what he found. This is what he was looking for after all. The first page was what looked like a little girl. Her hair was orangey red, and her eyes were almond shaped and dark brown. She was made up with white pan makeup and vivid doll-like features. The top read "Strawberry Tart" and listed a price of 2500 dollars. He flipped the page. Another made up the same way, but with blonde hair in pigtailed braids. Clear blue eyes looked back from the page of this one. "Crepe Suzette" this one read, with a price of 1800 dollars. He flipped the page again. This one was named "Chocolate Éclair" and had short, pixie cut brown hair and bright eyes looking back and light colored skin, but there was a large x on the page with hasty writing that said "no longer available". There were five more, but the prices went down as the book went on, obviously the top earner was the first listed with the final entry an older looking choice named "Raspberry Truffle" that had one a pair of bright pink pigtails, and costing 500 dollars. All were highly made up to look like a little girl's doll and had vacant expressions.

Gin smiled and placed 2500 in the first drawer and pushed it in. In for a penny, in for a pound, he thought. Might as well see what their highest earner was like. A moment later, it popped out again with a silver colored key attached to a strawberry keychain. He nodded to himself and followed the dark and creaking stairs up to the rooms. The place looked more like a rundown squatters' home rather than a location for this particular type of business. The hallway was dimly lit, and he swore he heard rats running in the walls behind him. This was not boding well for a pleasant experience. The area to the right was a row of eight doors, each numbered. The outside of the doors was rough and had peeling paint. All in all, the place was dark, dank, and lonesome. He wondered what kept people coming back and speaking so highly of this place? He shook the thought away and approached the first door. It was adorned with a sign with a number one on it and a strawberry. He unlocked the door, noting as he entered there was a light above the door that was on. An indicator someone was coming up?

He stepped into the room quietly. It was like stepping across a threshold into another world. All of it was decorated to look like a child's room. The walls were white except for the framed decorations of teddy bears, princesses, and hearts and white shelves. On the shelves sat knickknacks one would find in a child's room, small ceramic and porcelain dolls, bud vases with fake roses in them, and red glass jar candles. The room smelled of the cheap strawberry scented candles that sat on the shelves on the wall. The smell of the candles was not quite strong enough to cover the underlying smell of ammonia and cleaners. Besides the candles, there was a white metal floor lamp beside the door providing enough light for the whole room. On the other side of the door, there was a large empty wicker basket lined with plastic. The center of the small room was dominated by a white metal framed canopy bed. The white metal curved in scrollwork that made hearts here and there in the frame. The bed looked to be a twin and was covered with a strawberry printed covering that had lace all around the outside edges cascading down to the floor. Over the canopy it was decorated with a matching lace edging. Beside the bed was a small table with a drawer in white with decorative red heart knobs. On the bed was a plethora of pillows and stuffed animals surrounding what he was here for.

She, or as he smirked to himself, he, Gin realized, was sitting in cross legged in the middle of the bed. Gin knew it was a boy because now that he was close he could see that he was definitely not a child, but had a perfectly flat chest and belly. Gin realized the dressing was for show, and the child-like room was made for those that would visit it. It was a fetish brothel, he realized. It catered to those that had a thing for little girls, and wanted to play out their fantasy without crossing that line. He understood now why the name of the place was The Dollhouse. The boys were all dressed like Victorian era children, which were the basis for most Victorian style dolls. They were highly made up and looked like dolls.

He took a closer look at this particular boy. He was indeed dressed like a doll, with thick makeup coating his face. His cheeks were colored bright pink over white pan makeup underneath. Both eyes were lined thickly in kohl and accented with strokes of pink eye shadow. His lips were plump and coated in red lip gloss. His hair was vivid orange in the garish light of the room and put up in pigtails that sat high on each side of his head and fell down to his chin. He was wearing a cropped red top that was edged all the way around in white lace. As Gin slowly got closer he saw he was in a red mini-skirt to match the cropped top he was wearing, which like the top was edged in lace. The rest of his body seemed to be covered with the same pale white makeup that was used on his face. He didn't seem to notice that someone was there. With the way he was sitting, Gin could see a strawberry patterned undergarment of some sort under the edge of the skirt. He had a stuffed lion clutched against his chest. He didn't even flinch when Gin came up to the edge of the bed.

Gin looked at the table and saw a note lying upon it. He picked it up and opened it slowly.

"Welcome to Strawberry Tart's room. She's been a very bad little girl, so please punish her accordingly. There are plenty of toys in the drawer if you wish to use them to teach this naughty child a lesson. She is pouting, so she refuses to speak. Have fun making her cry for mercy. Most cannot accomplish that task. Leave used items in the basket by the door. Enjoy your stay."

Gin frowned, replacing the note on the small table. He leaned a bit and opened the drawer and arched two silver brows. In the drawer was an assortment of sex toys of the like Gin rarely saw in use, along with lubes, condoms, and various paddles and whips. Gin blinked and shut the drawer. The fact that the boy hadn't moved or even looked at him had him worried. Gin sat down on the bed next to him and heard the distinct crinkle of plastic. The bed was lined with plastic to keep the mattress clean, he thought. This was quite a thorough operation, he thought. He leaned forward and snapped his fingers in front of the boy's face. Nothing, he just stared into space. He frowned and took out his phone, turning the LED on and shining it into the boy's face. He did flinch, slowly, and Gin saw that his pupils were dilated and nearly unresponsive. Drugged. He sighed, turning off the LED flash and dialing the number in the phone.

"Cap, inside, confirmed brothel, don't raid the place hard. Looks like we have forced a prostitution ring. This is not an underage ring. Victims are possibly drugged; at least the one I'm with is heavily drugged. We need to assume the others are as well until we know otherwise. Yeah, I know. I'm in room one. Proceed. One confirmed on site, entry way, someone is behind the wall taking money. There may be others, the place is immaculate inside the rooms, so there must be cleaners and set up crews." He put the phone in his pocket and turned to his victim. They weren't prostitutes like they thought, they were victims. That certainly changed things in how they proceeded.

Gin reached up and put a hand on the boy's face beside him. "Mah, mah, can you hear me?"

He blinked slowly and looked at Gin finally, tilting his head to the side slowly. He didn't speak, though. Gin nodded. "We're going to get you out of here, okay? Can you tell me if the others are drugged?"

The boy's brows knitted for a second and he swallowed hard and nodded slowly. Gin smiled at him in a way he was hoping was reassuring. It probably came off as creepy like usual, however. He sighed, and looked around, finding a container of hand wipes beside the bed. He pulled out one and began wiping away the white makeup from his arms, frowning as he uncovered various shading of bruises underneath. He shook his head, seeing the pale skin underneath. It was quite obvious that he hadn't been outside in a while.

"Can you tell me your name?" Gin said, putting the wipes aside and looking into his eyes.

His brow creased a bit and he started to speak then shook his head, an almost pained expression on his face. Gin heard someone below and knew that the team had come in. A few minutes later the door popped open and his blond haired lieutenant, Izuru Kira looked in.

"Captain, there you are, we got one in custody, but there's no one else here outside these rooms," he said, coming and glancing around. "They're not children," he said softly, looking at the young man.

"No, they aren't, but this is organized, for one, so that's not permitted, and for two, he's drugged, so this is most likely a forced ring. How many vics?" he said, moving to stand up.

Just as he started to stand, one of the boy's hands reached out and grabbed him by the wrist. Gin looked down and frowned. He wasn't looking at him, and his left arm clutched even tighter to the stuffed lion he was holding than before. It surprised him. Usually, they avoided him because he looked so much like the johns they served in these hellish situations. He sat back down slowly and put his other hand on the boy's. Slowly, his brown eyes moved up to meet Gin's gaze. He tilted his head to the side slowly.

"You…" he began softly, his voice rough and thick. "You…help?" he asked finally.

Gin blinked and nodded. "Yes, yes, we're going to help. We're going to take you out of here, okay?"

Izuru stood to the side with his arms crossed. This was a new one. He never watched his boss interact with the victims or the prostitutes they picked up. Usually, they didn't want anything to do with him since he looked so sleezy, especially at times like this when he was dressed for this.

The boy nodded. "Th…Thank…you…" he managed, but his hand gripped Gin's wrist even tighter. Gin glanced down, and back to Izuru.

"Kira, can you bring Isane or Retsu up here to see our friend here?" he said quietly.

Kira nodded. "I'm sure they've gotten the other rooms open by now, so we'll see what we have. I'll alert the hospital. Stay here, Captain. I'll be back."

Gin nodded but kept his eyes on the boy. He looked like he was trying to focus on Gin's face very hard, as though he was fighting the drugs he'd been given. Gin left his right wrist clutched in his left hand where he'd grabbed it and grabbed another wet wipe from the box where he'd left it on the bed. He reached up and started to wipe away the makeup but he flinched back from him. Gin held the wipe up so he could see it and this time he let him wipe away the white paint that was coating his face. Gin knew he wasn't going to come near getting it off the boy, but he hoped that at least he could give him some semblance of gentle touch rather than what he was used to in this place.

A few minutes later, the main medic for their organization, Retsu Unohana, came into the room with her case. She came over and smiled at Gin.

"Good work, Gin-san," she said smiling at him gently. "There are six other young men, all made up like this, and all are on varying amounts of drugs. I'll have to get full tox screens for them all to see what, but most of them are in this same state of near hypnotic trance. My guess is phenobarbital, but I won't know until we get forensics to clear the rest of the place or the screens back. Kira said you were having difficulty here?"

Gin smiled at her. "Ah, yeah, he seems to not want to let go of me," Gin said with a smirk. "That's a first, they're usually runnin' the other way."

Retsu nodded and came up beside Gin and smiled at the boy. "Can you look my way?" she asked, reaching out to adjust his face toward her. As soon as her fingers touched his face he jerked backward away from her and fell backward off the side of the bed, pulling Gin over with him because his grip didn't release his wrist.

"No more," he yelped as he tried to pull away, seemingly not realizing he still was holding onto Gin with his right hand and clutching the lion with his left. "No…no more…" he said shaking his head and trying to pull himself to his feet using the windowsill. Gin managed to keep somewhat upright and got to his knees by him and used his other hand to grab his left arm. He turned suddnely.

"Hey, hey, calm down, here to help you remember?" he said quietly.

His eyes went back to the confused Retsu and back to him. "She hurts us," he said quietly, trying not to look at Retsu.

"What do you mean?" he asked, looking back to Retsu.

"The dark one, she has the needles," he said, trying to pull even further away from where Retsu was standing.

"A woman with dark hair?" he said, looking back at Retsu who nodded and left the room, understanding what was happening. "A woman with dark hair gives you the drugs?"

He seemed to relax a bit with Retsu gone and he nodded. "She doesn't like us…" he whispered.

Gin nodded, still kneeling beside the window. "Okay, okay, we'll get you out of here, okay?" he said, glancing to where his right hand still circled his wrist. "Come on, can you walk?" he asked.

He nodded and let Gin help him to unsteady feet. Gin put his right around around his shoulders and let him hold onto his left wrist as they moved slowly to the door. When they got to the doorway he stopped and looked up at the lit light. "Customer up," he muttered slowly and clutched the lion against his chest. Gin swallowed and ushered him down the stairs. Luckily, until the building was cleared of victims, the forensics teams weren't allowed in, so there weren't many people around. They came out into the night and he winced and looked up at the lights. He led him over to his car, an unmarked, and a uniformed officer came his direction.

"Sir, did you want me to transport him?" he asked.

Gin shook his head. "Nah, I'm done here, I'll take him back with me. The rest get off to the hospital?"

"Yes, sir. Ward three," he said with a nod.

Gin opened the passenger door and sat him down. "I need you to let go," he said, pulling gently at his hand. He nodded and let go, both hands now clutching the stuffed lion he held. Gin buckled his belt and went to sit down. He was staring straight ahead and he had to wonder what all they had him on. They made it to the hospital and he was unsurprised to find that most of the victims had reacted poorly to any female nurses with dark hair. They had all been given a ward near each other with separate rooms, and Gin led his charge into a room to a bed. A couple nurses came in and Gin stepped back.

Again, though, the minute one of them got near, he started to lash out, this time kicking one of them. Gin winced. Great, he thought as she started to yell for help restraining him.

"Wait, wait, don't," he said. "Here, let me help, he seems to trust me," he said to the flustered nurse. She frowned but nodded. Luckily, he'd just kicked her in the arm and not too hard at that.

Gin sighed and stood in front of him. "They just want to get these awful clothes off of you and put you in this hospital gown. Can I do it?" he asked with a sigh.

The boy nodded slowly. Gin smiled and held out his hand. "Here, let's get you in a shower while we can, yes?" he asked, looking to see the nurse nodding. The showers were equipped to catch any stray fibers anyway. One of the nurses followed him to snap the evidence pictures as he was undressed.

He maneuvered him into the shower, and sat him down on the seat it was equipped with. He pulled out the hair ties first, and then reached behind and unbuttoned the crop top. Once it was off, he could see fading bruises underneath the makeup that was covering his body. He stood him up to take off the skirt and underpants that were underneath it. He didn't seem bothered by any of it, however, just stared past Gin's face. Gin got the water warm and started washing off the makeup. Gin, while usually unfazed by this sort of thing winced at the amount of old and new markings on his body. It seemed he'd been in this brothel for a while, and if he was always left with the same instructions…

When he had washed it all off of him, they found a painfully thin young man, they guessed in his early twenties, with numerous contusions and abrasions. One of his eyes was black, and his nose was in need of being set properly. He got the gown on him and maneuvered him back into the hospital bed. He seemed so very docile, but he knew better. He'd seen the fight or flight reflex snap into reality anytime he felt threatened despite the drugs he was under. He had a feeling this one might be a handful.

He looked up as the door opened and one of his fellow captains, Captain Kuchiki, came in. He nodded. "Gin, you've outdone yourself this time," he said. "Quite a bust. Do you think any of them can identify who they were working for?"

"They weren't working for anyone," Gin said, watching as the boy stared out the window and clutched the lion to his chest. "All seven were drugged up so much they could barely move, let alone leave."

Byakuya nodded. "So, more than just a brothel."

He nodded. "Much more. We'll see what we can find out. Those the files on the others?" he said, looking at the stack Byakuya was holding.

"Yes, this one is the last before I take it to the office," Byakuya said. Gin arched a brow to ask to see them.

After a few minutes he handed the stack back. "This one," he said, pointing to the bed. "He's the one that was there the longest. The signs are more pronounced, and he has more scars than the rest, some are quite old."

Byakuya nodded. "So he possibly knows the most about what was going on," he agreed quietly. "I'll go talk to the head captain, but you should probably stay with him for now. I'll let the others know. This is too organized an operation to be some fly by night sex scam. There may be more victims. I'll see if my sister has heard anything at the Dangai from her friends."

Gin nodded and sighed. "Wonderful. Now I get to play guard," he muttered, grabbing a plastic chair and sitting it outside the door to the boy's room. Hopefully they got fingerprints back soon so they knew who they were. Calling them John Doe 1-7 was going to get old really quick. He was about to nod off when he heard a shout and blinked and came to awake when he heard another. He turned back and opened the door to see one of the nurses struggling to restrain the boy with great difficulty. He was panicking, it seemed, most likely having woken up in a strange place as they flushed the drugs out of his system. Anyone would panic.

Gin put a hand on the nurse's shoulder. "Easy, sweetheart," he said and she gasped.

His eyes were locked on Gin the second he came into the room. Gin nodded. "Remember me, kid?" he said.

He nodded slowly yanking his hand out of the half tied restraint. "Wh-where…where am I?" he asked, looking around and blinking.

"Hosptial, remember?" Gin said slowly, moving closer and sitting down beside him, untying the restraint the nurse had managed to tie.

He lifted his hands and rubbed his wrists and looked around. "What…what happened?" he said, patting his bed as though he were looking for something. Gin smiled and saw that the nurse had set the stuffed lion on the table. He reached over and picked it up. He patted the boy's leg and he turned back and snatched it out of Gin's hands immediately.

"I found you in a brothel, you were drugged. My guess is for quite a while. Can you tell me your name?" he said softly.

"Ich…Ichigo," he said, looking around with bleary but much clearer eyes than before.

Gin smirked. "Ichigo," he said softly. He understood the strawberries now. "Do you remember your last name?"

"K-Kurosaki," he said without thinking. "What…how long has it been?"

Gin blinked. "I don't know. How long were you in there?"

Ichigo shook his head. "I don't know…I don't know…it all blurs together…"

Gin nodded slowly. "Well, today is the 3rd of October, 2014."

"Five years," Ichigo muttered, looking back at him. "I've been there five years?" he said, frowning deeply. "Five years. Are the others safe?" he said, looking at him.

"They're fine, they're all here with you. We got everyone out. There was only one person other than the seven of you working there. We have her in custody," he said with a smile.

"Seven?" Ichigo said, eyes widening at the world. "There should have been eight," he said. "Someone was missing? We never leave the warehouse…" he said softly, looking worried.

"Don't worry, we'll find out what happened, for now, you need to rest. And try to avoid taking of nurses' heads, okay?" he said, smirking.

Ichigo nodded. "I do that, that's why she always gave me more shots than the others, I fought too many times…" he said softly.

Gin nodded. "You don't have to fight anymore, you're safe now."

Ichigo shook his head. "I'm not safe, none of us are safe, they'll come for us, take us again, and we'll be gone like the last time someone helped us…" he said softly, clutching the lion.

"What do you mean? You've been rescued before?" Gin said, now worrying more.

"I have," he said. "There was a policeman. In Hong Kong. He bought me and took me out but then they came and shot him at the police station and took me back. They were very mad after that. She broke my jaw."

"Who?" Gin asked. "Who are these people?"

Ichigo looked at him and shook his head. "The Sternritter. They don't let go of what they own. They'll come for us. They won't give up."


	2. A Doll's Life

**Crystal Tears**

**Chapter Two**

_A Doll's Life_

"Excuse me?" came a voice that startled Gin awake in the hallway. He looked up to see a nurse standing there staring at him.

"What?" he said, rubbing his eyes and looking up.

"I'm just coming on shift, it's seven, and the other nurse said that this patient was rather violent, I thought I'd ask you to come in with me. I'm rather non-confrontational…" she said timidly. She was a small thing, with huge breasts and a set of big gray eyes. He nodded.

"Orihime Inoue," she said quietly, smiling as he stood up.

"Captain Ichimaru," he said with a smile.

She smiled and pushed the door open. Gin followed her into the room and was glad to see that Ichigo was sleeping. He was still on an IV drip, and they would get back the bloodwork to see how things were looking overall later in the day. They, of course, had sent off everything for every sexually transmitted disease known, as well as HIV and other communicable diseases. So far that the doctors could tell, none of the boys appeared to have any sort of STD. He looked at the nurse.

"What will you be doing?" he asked quietly.

"I need bloodwork again, and his vitals of course," she said. "Mandy said that you were able to help last night. Considering what he's been through, Dr. Ishida doesn't the victims restrained if at all possible. He is coming off a heavy dose of drugs. Viagra and Phenobarbital, with trace amounts of several other sedatives. Everything is on the report, but it was amazing he could even walk," she said moving toward him. She smiled softly. "He's cute," she said with a blush rising to her cheeks.

Gin smiled. "Don't get too attached, dear, these type of victims are often a handful," he said as he moved forward to try and wake him as gently as possible.

It turned out that gently as possible concluded with a fist connecting with his nose in short order. He stumbled back with a grunt and the nurse gasped out loud. Gin waved at her to stay back as he straightened his jacket and sighed. It was expected. It wasn't the worst he'd gotten, to be honest. He blinked away the tears as he looked at him, and as expected he was glaring at him from under deeply knitted brows. In opposition to the furious look upon his face, though, he was clutching the stuffed lion to his chest still. Gin nodded to himself. The lion wasn't just a product of his drugged condition. It actually was a significant item to him.

"Ah, Ichigo, you've got a mean right hook," Gin said, rubbing his nose. "You remember me?"

Ichigo looked back and forth between the frightened nurse and the man in the long white coat and nodded. "You…you were there last night. You brought me here."

Gin nodded, moving to stand by the side of the bed again. "I did. The rest of the team brought the others as well."

Ichigo nodded, looking around and clenching his jaw. "I want out of here. I want to leave."

"I'm afraid you can't leave just yet, you're going to need medical care…" Gin started.

"I don't fucking care. I want out. I want to leave. I want to get away, now," he said. "I just want to be left alone, I don't want anyone to touch me, I don't want any fucking medical care, I just want to be left alone."

Gin sighed. "Ichigo, I'll see what I can do. But for now, would you at least let the nurse here take your vitals? She's just doing her job."

Ichigo nodded, looking away as she stepped forward and did her checks. He didn't flinch or move when she took blood. She nodded to Gin and headed out the door with the blood samples and the chart.

Ichigo turned over and lay on his side, facing away from the door and then looked back at Gin who was standing by the bed still. "Are you fucking stupid? Leave."

Gin nodded and bowed slightly and stepped out the door. He waved at Kira. "Hey, stay by his door. He's aggressive, more than the rest from what I've heard. I'm going to see what's going on with the others."

"Yeah, boss, hey, the one with the pink hair, Szayel, his name is, keeps asking if Ichigo is okay. I told him I didn't know anything, but he's pretty insistent and frantic about it. Turns out one of the others, Illfordt, one of the the blondes, is his brother, so they've been put in the same room, you might want to talk to him, then," Kira said, taking a seat outside the door.

Gin nodded and went to the room across the hall and knocked on the door gently. "Enter," came a voice from inside. He pushed open the door to find the two brothers, the blonde and the one with dyed pink hair, sitting on one of the beds together. Szayel was sitting against the head with Illfordt sitting between his legs and was brushing out his hair while the blonde flipped through a magazine. Szayel patted his shoulder and Illfordt got up and flopped back onto his bed.

"Captain Ichimaru, yes?" he said with a soft smile.

"Yes, and you are…" he picked up the clipboard. "Szayel Granz. It says here you weren't drugged like the other boys."

Szayel shook his head, taking the brush to his own hair and pulling it back in a ponytail on top of his head. "No, I was not. I did not wish to lose my faculties. I had to take care of the boys, after all. It was a sacrifice on my part, and sometimes I dearly wished for the drugs, but if I had them, I couldn't have taken care of them."

Gin nodded. "Take care of them?" he asked.

"I was in the Dollhouse for four years. The only one there when I and my brother were taken from our home in Germany was Ichigo. He was so alone and angry, and I knew then I couldn't fight them. I watched what the drugs did to Ichigo and Illfordt, and it was a blessing and a curse. So instead I told them I'd acquiesce to their requests without argument if I was allowed to be their caretaker. You see, I'm a nurse by profession. My brother and I were taken from outside our apartment building. They were going to kill me at first, because I appeared to be a woman, but my brother told them I wasn't, and to let me live. Because of that, they took me as well. I'm actually transgendered, and four years ago I had just started hormone therapy in preparation for gender reassignment," he said. "So I actually prefer to be referred to as a woman, but for now, we'll forego that preference. I would rather see to Ichigo. My guess is, by the blackening on your face, he is in his usual mood when he comes down off the drugs."

Gin smiled. "I take it he is usually a violent person?"

Szayel shook his head. "No matter what I try with that child, I cannot quell his anger and violence. He reacts to pain with fury. Tears rarely fall from his eyes, even when they should flow in rivers."

Gin looked skeptical. "Okay, you can come see him for a little while," he said with a nod. He could come up with no good reason to deny his request. There were shinigami officers all over the place, and of course there was their own division there as well.

Szayel nodded and stood. He looked back to Illfordt. "Will you be fine while I'm seeing to him?"

"Sure, sis, have at," he said, waving a hand over his shoulder at him, absorbed in the magazine in front of him.

"Okay, kiddo, stay here," he said, ruffling the blonde's hair as he followed Gin, wrapping the hospital gown tightly around him as they came to the door. Szayel turned to Gin as they walked. "I was nineteen when our parents were killed in a car accident. I pretty much raised Illfordt from then on. Someone my age, raising a nine year old, it wasn't easy. We made due, though," he said with a soft smile.

Kira looked up and smiled as they approached. Gin opened the door and went in while Szayel leaned against the doorway with his arms crossed, eyes locked on the fluff of bright orange hair sticking up over the edge of the covers.

Ichigo growled from the bed. "I told you all to stay the hell out," he groused, pulling the covers tighter over his body, but Szayel could see the tremble in his fingers as he fumbled with the covers. "Leave me the fuck alone."

Szayel sighed. "Honey, I swear, you are the most foul mouthed creature when you aren't doped out of your head," he said, a light smile crossing his face.

Ichigo immediately rolled over and blinked at him, and Gin thought for a second he might actually cry. Ichigo swallowed noisily and watched as Szayel slowly went over to him and smiled. Ichigo swung over and sat up on the bed and grabbed him in a tight hug.

"Szay, oh gods, Szay, I thought they were lying, they…they said everyone was here…and I…I didn't…" Ichigo said, hands clutching at him desperately. "I can't trust anyone…you know…Szay, oh you're here, I'm so glad…are you okay? Is Illfordt okay? The others? Who's missing? Someone's missing."

"Hush, honey, hush, I'm here, we're all here. Everyone but Luppi, but he's somewhere safe if what I heard is true," he said softly, hugging the orangette to him tightly. "So don't worry, okay?" he said softly and sat down beside him stroking his head softly.

"Szay, are we really free?" he said, still clinging to the other man with his head buried in his shoulder. "Please, tell me it…it isn't another dream…or like…Hong Kong…" he said, and Gin knew that he heard the boy choking back tears that time, but his face was buried in Szayel's neck.

"Honey, you're safe, okay? Not a dream, not like Hong Kong. They aren't getting to us again, okay?" he said softly, rocking slightly with him. "Shh, now, you have to promise me to go a bit easier on these guys though, they're trying to help us, you know?"

"But I don't like to be touched, you know that," he said, and Gin was sure this time he heard the sound of choked tears in his voice. "I just want to go away and be alone with you and Illfordt, just us, like you promised," he said thickly.

"Honey, I know, but I'm here, and it is okay, I promise," he said. "And they understand that. When everything is safe, we'll get away, okay? I promised you that, and I don't break my promises, honey, even if it takes years, didn't I say that?"

Ichigo nodded, taking a gasping breath. "Yeah," he said finally, hands flexing against Szayel's back. "But…where's Luppi?"

"Ah, yes, I'm sorry to interrupt, but you mentioned that this Luppi was gone?" Gin said.

Szayel nodded over Ichigo's head. "Yes, there was a buy out a few days ago. It happens sometimes; someone finds one of the dolls of great interest and makes a one-time buyout offer. Usually, it is about ten times their daily price, and only if they're beginning to be a drain on resources. Luppi lately had been unpredictable, several instances of resisting the customers despite the drugs, and I heard the Matron say that he was getting too much to handle. He was always a sensitive thing, and I just think the increase in visits when they raised his price was too much for him."

Gin arched a brow. "Increase in visits?"

Szayel nodded. "The operation was pretty simple. There were eight, no more, at a given time. Usually we were moved between major cities worldwide every six to nine months. We've only been here for two months, so I'm very surprised that you caught wind of the operation this fast. Of course, this is why there were only eight of us. We're ranked according to various things. Obviously, because of my age, I'm ranked lowest. I'm the only one of the boys over twenty, however, I fill a role that they don't have to fill, that of nursemaid and caretaker, so I'm allowed to stay. The new boys are brought in between 14 and 16 usually, and they spend two months being trained," Szayel looked a little pale at the thought. "After that they are moved into the rankings depending on their desirability. The more desirable the boy, the higher they rank and the more money they pull in. If a boy starts pulling more money, they move up, if they start pulling less, they move down. If a boy goes for more than a month without a client, they're…disposed of and a new boy is brought in. We're lucky, most of us have been with the Dollhouse for a while, though Luppi and Ggio are newer, less than a full year."

Gin nodded, having pulled out a notepad while Szayel was speaking. Szayel smiled again and hugged Ichigo against him again. "The drugs are to keep them docile. Phenobarbital, valium, Haldol, tegretol, ketamine, and of course, liberal use of Viagra and cialus type drugs. One of the pleasures is seeing the boy ejaculate for them. There were other drugs, those are just the bottles I've seen personally on the Matron's tray. Ichigo, he was always a fighter, and always black and blue, I swear," Szayel said, rubbing Ichigo's back as he spoke. "I guess that's what made me want to take care of him. It wasn't long after we were brought on that other boys came in, and I found my place. It was hell, I won't lie, Captain, pure hell. I did my best though for the boys."

"Were the low earners the only ones that left?" Gin asked, jotting notes and looking up.

Szayel shook his head sadly and Gin saw tears misting his golden eyes. "Every six months, the top earner, whoever it was, would disappear for no reason, and we were never told where they went. Buyouts, we knew about. However, when the top earner disappeared, they spoke nothing of it, like they'd never existed." Szayel's hands clenched Ichigo. "Ichigo was made top earner after the last one disappeared five months ago. Six months, that's how long before they disappear once they hit the top earner spot. Around midsummer and midwinter, every year. It would have been next month…midsummer…" he said softly, petting Ichigo's head. "I would have lost him and never known what happened."

Ichigo looked up and Gin could see that his eyes were definitely red. "I wouldn't let them take me, Szay, you know that. I would have fought them," he said softly.

Szayel smiled. "I'm sure you would have, honey. But I didn't want to lose you, you're my baby, you know?"

Ichigo smiled and nodded, putting his head on Szayel again, but not looking at Gin. Gin nodded. "So, what happened to Luppi?" he said. Ichigo turned a questioning eye to Szayel too.

"Like I said, a buyout, from what the Matron said. She said something about a little redheaded girl named…um…" Szayel's brow creased. "Oh, what was it? She said it was something that started with an R… I can't remember exactly, but she did say that she lived down in the old Executor Building, a really strange girl, if that makes sense."

Gin nodded, he knew that building. "Okay, I think I can go check it out. Do you know the names of anyone?" he said, looking up.

Szayel shook his head. "I can give you descriptions, but we never knew their names. The Matron was the dark haired woman that brought food, water, and drugs. The Enforcer would hand out punishments and would take away the ones that…well, the ones that didn't last. There was the Cleaner, he came in and fixed up the rooms. And…you see, we knew them by their jobs, and we weren't given names. They didn't hide their faces, though, so perhaps it will help. I just know they went by the name the Sternritter."

Gin nodded. "Okay, if you want to stay in here, go ahead, I'm sure the nurses would appreciate not having their heads taken off, so, I'll go find out who bought this Luppi. You said you thought he was safe? How do you know it wasn't some pervert?" he said, pausing at the door.

Szayel nodded. "The Matron said something about the girl not even caring about sex, something about saving him. It happens, now and then, someone has a conscious."

Gin nodded and left, hearing Ichigo and Gin talk softly as he left. The whole thing was curious. More and more it was sounding like a very organized operation. He nodded to the officer at the entrance to the ward. He figured he go check the Executor first.

The Executor building was literally next door to the red light district, not more than five blocks from the Dangai love motel. It had been a factory twenty years ago, and now it was divided up into apartments, all relatively spacious, but equipped with the barest essentials. There were no "amenities" in the place. It had concrete floors, spackle coated walls, and thin wall dividers between the rooms. Each apartment had a small bathroom with a shower and a sink, and a kitchen with a stove, refrigerator, and a sink. The places went cheap, and that was about it.

He knew from the Visored about the place. Apparently, the owner made video games and often asked the prostitutes to playtest them. According to everything he'd heard, they were legitimate, and there was nothing kinky going on even though they paid the hookers well for what they did. Gin had never been there, but he knew that other officers had investigated to see if there was anything illegal going on.

He looked up. The building was four stories and each floor was split into four apartments. He guessed he'd start at the top where the couple lived that did the games from what the Visored had mentioned. He headed up the stairs and as he passed rooms he heard locks turn. Well, they certainly didn't seem like a trustworthy lot around here, he thought. As he passed one, he saw a dark haired man peering out at him before the door slammed. A flight later, a nearly shaved headed man did similarly, staring at him until he headed up the stairs again. Finally he got to the top floor where there was a plaque on the door of the first apartment reading Digital Radial Invaders (DRI). He sighed and knocked on it gently.

A few minutes later a woman with hair that was more pink then red opened the door and smiled. "Can I help you?" she asked.

"Um, yeah, Captain Gin Ichimaru, Shinigami. I was here about a boy named Luppi?" he said, arching one brow.

"Oh that poor boy?" she said, looking sad. "Please, come in a moment. I'll tell you about what happened."

Gin nodded and followed her into the surprisingly nice looking apartment. There were overly adorable things everywhere, however. He followed her into the living area and sat down across from her. "Yukio is out right now, but he'll be back soon. So, I guess something happened with that awful place?"

Gin nodded. "I can't go into details, of course, but I understand you bought one of the boys that worked at the place?"

She nodded. "Yes, I got an invitation to it, and I thought it was something entirely different," she said, picking up a plain looking envelope and handing it over. Gin opened it and saw an ornate stationary with an invitation to visit the Dollhouse that promised an experience unlike any other. It indicated that they had the loveliest dolls in the world. "My name is Riruka Dokugamine, and what I do is buy and sell toys, dolls, that sort of things. I find hidden treasures, I guess you could say. I don't make a lot off it but I do have fun. I thought it was a doll collector's thing. I couldn't have been more wrong!" she said, sighing.

Gin nodded, pulling out the notepad and jotting down things. "Mah, mah, I bet that was a shock, eh?" he said with a grin.

"Indeed, I came right home and told Yukio we had to do something. So I went back with a wad of cash and bought out the one that I could. There was only one boy they would let me buy, and that was Luppi. They refused to let me take the others. I tried to buy them all, but they refused, saying the most they could let go of was one at a time, but come back in a month if I wanted to buy another," she said with a sigh. "The poor dear was a mess, all covered in makeup and was barely coherent. He's not quite over the drugs, but we put him across the hall with Wonderweiss. We figured it was the most restful place we could put him. He keeps the place dark and quiet."

Gin nodded. "And Wonderweiss is?"

"Oh, he helps Yukio with the business. He's the head programmer and helps with debugging the games. He's a dear one to us, like a child of our heart," she said with a smile. "We brought him back from Germany with us, poor thing, he's a nonverbal genius, you know. Such a sad tale, his father was an infamous serial killer, so he couldn't get any peace there. That's why we brought him with us. Of course, Yukio saw how talented he was the moment he saw him."

"I'm sure I'll have more questions on that, but one more, you and Yukio are roommates?" Gin asked.

"Oh, no, well I mean, yes, but we're also together, you know," she said with a slight smile.

He nodded and smiled. "Can I talk to Luppi?" he asked.

"Oh, certainly, if he's up for it," she said, standing and motioning Gin to follow her.

She took him across the hall and smiled as a really tall, dark skinned boy in a Hawaiin looking shirt walked by. "Hey, Sado, how are the birds?"

He nodded slowly. "Good," he said in a deep voice and went into a nearby room.

Riruka knocked and looked at Gin. "He lives in that apartment and has a little aviary on the roof for the pigeons. He adores little animals," she said as the door opened and Gin small a shorter young man with messy blonde hair and bright violet eyes looking back.

"Mind if we see your guest?" she said.

The boy nodded quickly and motioned them in. Riruka kissed him on the top of the head. "We won't bother you, but I hope you remembered lunch," she said.

"Lunch, had lunch," he muttered as he headed back to the large triple monitored computer set up that filled one side of the room. Other than the glow from the computer screens, there were no lights.

Riruka smiled and looked at Gin. "He gets so absorbed in his work he forgets eating and sleeping," she said with a smile and led them to a paper screen to the side. She rapped on it gently and a voice said "Yes?" from inside.

She pushed the screen back and Gin recognized the boy from the third picture from the binder. He was fair skinned with a crown of dark brown pixie cut hair on his head. He was petite and very feminine looking in features, even without the makeup on him. He also looked to be quite frail and thin. It was obvious that he hadn't fared well under the conditions in the Dollhouse. Gin smiled as the boy looked up at him. Riruka kneeled beside the matt he was laying on.

"Sweetie, this is Gin, he's with the shinigami police," she said with a smile.

"Luppi, I'm glad to see you," he said with a smile.

"Why…why are you here?" he said, frowning. "Did something happen to the others?" he said, starting to look worried.

Gin sighed. It was obvious these boys had gotten used to living together and taking care of each other, it was no wonder they wanted to know about each other.

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to come down the hospital with me and see them yourself, actually," he said with a soft smile.

Luppi's eyes went wide. "What? They're out? You got them out?"

Gin nodded. "All seven, and they were worried when you weren't there. Szayel helped though, he heard that you'd been bought out."

Luppi smiled and looked at Riruka with a big smile. "I'll go, Riruka, I have to see them," he said softly, tears starting to fall immediately.

Riruka smiled at him. "Of course, I'll go if you want," she said softly.

Luppi nodded. "Yes, of course…I want you to go," he said getting to his feet shakily.

"And of course we'd like to have you checked over as well," Gin said. "Mah, mah, and of course the talking to you about things that happened, but not right away, we wanna make sure you're all healthy, first."

Luppi nodded and together they headed down the stairs with Gin. On the way out, Gin didn't hear any doors slamming or locks clicking. It seemed he'd been someone accepted into their midst.


	3. Dolls' Origins

**Crystal Tears**

**Chapter Three**

_Dolls' Origins_

The room was dark and cool. That was the way he preferred it, of course. He didn't want things to disturb him. It had to be the ideal conditions for such an esteemed being as himself. He glanced at the calendar. The midsummer celebration would happen soon. He was growing weak these days, as always before the midsummer and midwinter sacrifice. He turned and picked up the paper with the picture of the orange haired boy he'd been grooming for this day the last five years. He was dearly looking forward to this celebration. His taste would no doubt be much better than any of the past sacrifices he'd taken. He always relished those that were fighters and resisted until the end. Very few were bright enough spirits to slake the thirst of a god…

"My lord!" a voice rang from the entrance to his chamber. "My lord Yhwach!"

Yhwach turned his dark haired head toward the opening where his high priest, first among his worshippers, stood with a face that reflected deep pain. Jugram Haschwalth deeply regretted the words he was about to speak to his god and master, and that was easy for Yhwach to read upon the tall blonde's face.

"My lord, terrible news. The Temple has been raided, and all seven of the candidates have been stolen away! They have all been taken, my lord!" he said, bowing deeply to him.

Yhwach turned to him. "Even my chosen?"

"Y-yes, my lord. The Chosen Child has been removed as well! We have lost one to these thieves in the night, the loyal and good Canadace Catnipp has been imprisoned by the vile creatures that have invaded your holy space, my lord," Jugram continued, not raising from the bent position.

"Gather the fold," Yhwach said, turning away. "Midsummer is in less than a month. I must have the Chosen Child to give me strength for the next half year. There is no other to slake the thirst of your god and master, my priest. I shall speak in person to the fold, and we shall retrieve what the heathens have stolen from us. To think, I deem to provide the lowly creatures with pleasures of the flesh, and they turn on me in their greed! Bring the Sternritter in, my priest. Bring them all. We will retrieve my bright one, and then we shall quit this vile country. This is how they repay the beautiful gifts of the god!" he said, disappearing into the dark depths of the luxurious canopied bed.

"Yes, my lord, yes," Jugram said, ducking and running from the chambers to summon the others.

His lord and god had spoken, and he listened.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Gin stood with his back to Szayel's doorframe as he heard Szayel in the room comforting a vomiting Illfordt. Szayel came out slowly. "They're all going through some degree of withdrawal. Ichigo and…" he paused to look up and see an unsteady looking Luppi standing beside Gin.

"Oh, sugar!" he exclaimed and ran up and hugged him tightly. "Oh sugar-baby, I was afraid we wouldn't see you again!"

Luppi smiled. "Well, I'm here. Gin came and got me from my new home," he said, smiling.

Szayel pushed him back and looked him over. "Who on earth dressed you, sugar?" he said with a wry grin.

Luppi was wearing a pair of patterned Hello Kitty pajama pants with a pair of boots and a short sundress of yellow and green stripes over it. He picked at the skirt. "Well, Wonderweiss, the person I'm staying with, he dressed me. He has an…interesting wardrobe."

Szayel shook his head and hugged him again. "Oh, baby, I'm glad you're okay. How's the withdrawal?" he said gently.

Luppi shook his head. "Rough few days, been…"

From the bathroom, there was the sound of Illfordt violently throwing up again and sobbing. Szayel sighed. "Yeah," Luppi said. "Lot's of that."

There was a knock at the door and they looked up to see the white haired Dr. Ishida who was primary on the group. "Luppi, you were the last of the group in this Dollhouse? Can I get you to come to a room, just nearby, so we can run tests on you?"

Luppi looked to Szayel who nodded with a smile. "Oh, okay," he said and followed him, with Riruka following him. Gin turned to Szayel again.

"Would you come with me to check in on everyone? I need to send a report up the chain on them and the conditions they're in," Gin said with a nod.

"Illfordt, honey, will you be okay for a while?" he called into the bathroom.

"Um hum, go on sis," he muttered before throwing up again.

Szayel nodded and took Gin's hand, surprising the silver haired officer, but he didn't resist. "Let's see, I'm most worried about Ichigo, of course, but I think Ulquiorra is the most damaged besides him."

Gin opened the next door where the dark haired young man was sitting in the chair staring out the window with his pale hands knitted together in his lap. He turned and blinked vivid green eyes at the pair of them. Szayel came forward and sat down on the bed beside him.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" he said softly. "Have you met Gin Ichimaru?"

Ulquiorra looked at him and nodded. "Yes, he's with the shinigami. When will we leave here?" he asked, quietly and in a voice utterly devoid of emotion.

"Soon, soon. Can you tell me about yourself? If you feel up to it, of course," Gin said, flipping open his notebook and clicking the recorder in his pocket on.

Ulquiorra nodded. "My name is Ulquiorra Cifer. I am now seventeen years old. I was kidnapped in Belgium when I was fourteen. I was a street kid, orphan with no parents. It honestly wasn't that much different than the life I'd been used to. I've slowly declined the drugs the Matron offered over the last few years. I do not need them. I have no reason to fight with my situation. I am pleased it has changed, but it will not matter. I have no one, and I am no one." He paused and sipped the cup of water on the tray table. "I was named Coeur a la Crème. Ironic." He looked down at his hands and Gin saw the barest flicker of a tremor. "I'd like to be alone, now," he said and turned to face the window again.

Szayel nodded. "We'll let you rest, Ulquie."

As they stepped out Szayel took a breath. He closed the door and shook his head. "He's turned off his emotions. A couple years ago, he came to me and told me he quit 'feeling' anything at all, and it was better. Since then, he hasn't needed the drugs as often, and he hasn't shed a tear or felt anything, from what I can tell," he said, his golden eyes reflecting the sadness that it brought to his heart. "Here, next we have Ggio; he was one of the newer boys."

They opened the door gently to the next room and Gin knew that the boy in the bed was completely miserable. He was curled up on the bed with a blanket. If Gin didn't know better, he would have thought the boy had a bad case of the flu. He looked up as Szayel entered, though and sat up with teary eyes. He had longish brown hair cut around his face to frame it, and large eyes.

"Szayel, I feel bad," he moaned.

"Aw, sweetie, I know," he said and sat down beside him and hugged him against him. He ducked his head into Szayel's chest. "Just the drugs getting out of your system. They had you on a lot, sweetie. Almost as much as my Ichi-baby," he said, stroking Ggio's dark hair. "My friend Gin is talking to everyone to get information on how they got into this place. Do you feel like talking?"

Ggio nodded and looked up at Gin warily. Szayel reached over and handed him a tissue. "My name's Ggio Vega, and I was born in Spain. I'm seventeen, and they grabbed me last year. I was running away from home, my family is messed up, and I was hitchhiking, and this woman stopped a white van. I thought it was a football mom or something, you know. But the minute I got into the seat, she stabbed this needle in my neck, and I woke up…there," he said, and his eyes went wide for a moment.

Gin smiled. "You don't have to talk about that part yet. I'm just getting names and where everyone is from."

Ggio nodded. "Szayel? Can you stay?" he asked, looking up at him.

"Oh, sweetie, I'll be back. We're going to see Findorr next, okay? I've got to check on everyone," he said, patting Ggio's head gently.

Ggio nodded. "Okay, gonna take a nap then, Szay."

Szayel smiled and covered him up gently before stepping out of the room with Gin. He took a deep breath. "It's hard seeing them like this. I've become so close to all of them, you know."

Szayel knocked gently on the next door and a voice called to enter. "Fin?" he said softly as he went in.

"Szay," the blonde said as he turned around. He was tall with long blonde hair and a long, lean body. "How are you?"

"Findorr, I should ask you?" Szayel said, going over and hugging the robed young man. "Any symptoms?"

Findorr nodded. "Dizzy a lot, nauseous. You know."

"This is Gin Ichimaru, he's the one that got everyone out, and he's getting down information on everyone. Up to talking a bit?" he said with a smile.

He nodded and sat down on the bed slowly. "Yeah, Findorr Calius. I'm nineteen now, almost three years there, Crepe Suzette, sounds so exotic, doesn't it?" He smiled. "Yeah, I grew up in south Wales, actually. I was on a traveling trip through Europe, backpacking, when I got waylaid one night in Germany and woke up in hell. No one to look for me, my parents died a few years before, and I had been living with relatives. No one to bother with me."

Gin nodded and looked at Szayel. Szayel leaned over and kissed Findorr on the temple. "Oh, love, I'll be back. I'm taking Gin to check in on everyone. I want to know how you are, and he needs information. So you let me know if you need me, okay?" he said smiling at him.

"Yeah, thanks, Szay," he said quietly and lay back in his bed again as they left.

Szayel was finding this harder than he anticipated. He nodded to Gin and knocked on the next room and entered a moment later. "Tesla?" he called.

Immediately, Szayel let out an oomph sound and laughed lightly. "Oh, sweet, there, there, how are you?"

The young blonde haired man looked up with one teary eye. The other eye had a patch over it. "Szayel, oh is it true? I can't…I can't even think right now, I feel like I'm going to wake up from a dream!"

"Sweet, shh, hey, it isn't a dream. We're all here, come, sit down," Szayel said, and led him to the bed and sat beside him. "I'm taking Gin around with me to see everyone, make sure you're not in too poor a state from the drug withdrawal. Illfordt is getting quite familiar with the toilet in our room."

Tesla smiled. "A little sick, and a lot fuzzy headed," he said, rubbing his head.

"Can you tell Gin here about yourself?" Szayel asked, stroking his short blonde hair.

"Yeah," he said, looking to Gin who smiled at him. "Tesla Lindocruz. I'm eighteen, I think, and been there about three years. I got the funny name, Brioche Perdu. They just called me Perdu most the time. Anyway, I was alone, a runaway on the streets of Portugal, where I grew up. I was on drugs and I don't think my parents even knew I was gone, they were both drug addicts. Then this night, I saw this woman and I woke up and I was far away. I thought it was a bad drug trip. It wasn't."

Szayel hugged him again. "Hey, don't worry, honey. It will be okay. I've got to go see about Luppi."

"Luppi's here?" he said, looking up.

"He is," Szayel said, standing. "I'll be back soon, you rest, okay? They said about two weeks for the withdrawal to be done."

Tesla nodded and snuggled into the covers as Szayel left with Gin. He looked to Gin. "We're more like a family, you know. We had to be. We had to take care of each other because they weren't going to take care of us," he said sadly as he knocked on Luppi's room.

Luppi was sitting in the middle of the bed, still in the pajama pants but with a hospital gown on. He looked up and smiled at them. "Szayel, hey. They just got done draining me of blood, I swear, how many tests do they run?"

Szayel sat down in the chair by the bed and smiled. "A terrible lot, love. I brought Gin by to talk to you a bit. Would you want to tell him about yourself?"

Luppi nodded. "Well, my name is Luppi Antenor. Last year, just after my sixteenth birthday, I left the orphanage I grew up in to look for work, up around Tokyo. I don't know who my family was, I was left on a church doorstep as a baby, don't know why, it wasn't like I looked different _then_, that didn't happen until puburty," he said, picking at the fuzzy pants.

Gin frowned and glanced at Szayel. "Luppi is intersexed. He has Klinefelter Syndrome, which means he didn't ever develop normally like a typical boy, hence his feminine features. He even has the cutest little breasts," Szayel said, reaching out and patting Luppi's chest gently. Luppi wrinkled his nose at him.

"You and your breast fixation. You just want them," he said with a smirk.

"But of course, love, I was supposed the get implants by now…" Szayel said, hugging Luppi against him affectionately and ruffling his dark hair. "Then I'd have my on breasts to play with."

Luppi blushed a bit. "You're terrible, you know that?"

"You love me anyway," Szayel said with a smile.

"Can I ask something?" Luppi said suddenly, looking up. "I…I just want to know if I should trust them, this Riruka, Wonderweiss, and Yukio, they seem so nice. Too nice."

"Sweets, there are people who are just nice and good people, you know," Szayel said with a sigh. "I hate to leave you, but I should check on Ichigo."

Luppi winced. "He's being weaned off the drugs too? How many people has he punched?"

Szayel smirked. "He's too sick right now to do much punching since his withdrawal kicked in. You know they had him doped up to the point he could barely move for the last few months."

"Go see to him, Szay. You're the only one he listens to when he comes down," Luppi said, patting his hand gently.

Szayel smiled and got up, and closed the door as Luppi snuggled down into the bed again. He took a deep breath and looked across at Ichigo's door. "May as well do this, now, put it off long enough," he said softly.

"You act like you're afraid of how he'll be this time, he calmed down directly for you before," Gin said, looking up at him.

"He's coming down still, he'll get worse. He was on such a high dose. He's going to be in misery for days…" Szayel said, opening the door to Ichigo's room.

Ichigo was flopping back and forth on the bed restlessly. He was covered in sweat and looked horrible. His already pale skin had taken on a lighter pallor even still.

"Ichi-baby," Szayel said and went to sit down beside him. "How are you honey?" he asked, stroking Ichigo's damp hair from his face.

"I feel like shit," he muttered, grabbing Szayel's hand and pressing it against his face. "I just want to sleep but I can't sleep, and when I close my eyes…the things I see…"

Szayel rubbed his face softly. "I brought Gin with me; he's getting information on everyone to find their families."

Ichigo glanced at him with a look that could have killed lesser beings. Gin flinched involuntarily. The boy had one hell of an intensity about him. "I don't know. It's been five years. I don't know what's anything anymore. I lived in Karakura Town. I was fourteen, and I just remember this man coming up to me on a playground…and then, it just all went black and I woke up and…" Ichigo shook his head. "I just know my last name is Kurosaki. I can't remember a lot from before the Dollhouse."

Gin nodded slowly. "That helps, I'll try and find your family, along with the others," he said, looking up with what he hoped was a hopeful smile.

Ichigo nodded. "I don't care about them, I just…I just want us to be together, you know, we're enough."

Szayel smiled. "I know, but honey, if we found out they were out there…"

"If I had anyone out there, why didn't they look for me?" Ichigo said, scowling and pulling the stuffed lion to his chest. "Kon's the only thing I have left. And I know my mother isn't out there. I know that. I don't remember why I know that, but I know it. No one else cared to look."

Gin sighed and nodded. He smiled. "I'll leave you two," he said and stepped out the door. He looked up as a new nurse came by with a tray and smiled at him. She was a cute thing, violet eyes and hair, and she had a pretty purple bow around her neck like a scarf with her scrubs. He thought that was strange and he was about to follow her when another nurse came up to talk to him. He didn't think much of it. Then he heard one of the boys scream, and looked up to see the nurse walking quickly away. Gin wanted to follow her, but instead he took off toward the room where the scream came from, Tesla's room.

Tesla was crouched in the corner with his hands over his head and shaking violently muttering under his breath. Szayel came up behind Gin as he went into the room and knelt in front of the boy.

"Tesla, what happened?" he asked.

Tesla looked up with frightened eyes and shook his head. "It was the Watcher, she was the Watcher, she was here, and she came in and she was standing over my bed and smiling at me! She said…she said…god would come for his sacrifice soon enough, and I screamed and she ran away!" he said, sobbing.

Szayel knelt down beside Gin and Tesla leapt into his arms. Szayel looked at Gin. "The Watcher, she was like the scout, the spy, she was the one they sent out to keep watch and guard outside when we were moving. She…she always smiled and I think she enjoyed watching us."

"She have purple hair?" Gin said, running a hand over his head. "Purple bow?"

Szayel frowned. "Yeah…how do you…"

"I saw a new nurse, I thought it was strange, the bow, you know, but Nurse Orihime came up to ask me a question…" Gin said, standing up. "We're going to have to find a more secure location."

"I might have a solution," came a new voice. Gin turned to see Riruka standing beside a young man with blonde hair. "I'm Yukio Hans Vorarlberna, and I own the Executor building. Perhaps we can work out something to protect these boys?" he said, tilting his head to the said and staring at Gin.


	4. Doll Clothes

**Crystal Tears**

**Chapter Four**

Doll Clothes

Gin secured a private conference room on the floor with the rooms and had a couple other people come in, including his lieutenant, Izuru Kira. Not too long after they got the room set up, Gin's partner, and head of the Vice division, arrived with his lieutenant, Renji Abarai. Gin specialized in the undercover vice operations, and Byakuya tended to the busts and the uniformed officers that worked for the Shinigami organization. Dr. Retsu Unohana came with him, as one of the first responders on the cleanup of the scene. Dr. Ishida, of course, arrived, and had his son, another doctor at the hospital named Dr. Uryuu Ishida, and the head nurse for the ward, Orihime Inoue. Orihime was also Uryuu's wife, which made stationing the pair with the "dolls" an easy choice. While Ryuken Ishida's specialty was trauma, his son's specialty was psychiatry. Gin also asked Szayel to attend the meeting to speak on behalf of the victims.

Gin sat at one end of the table with Szayel on his right and Yukio on his left. Beside Yukio, Riruka sand and watched everyone around them. Beside her sat Dr. Ishida and the his son, Uryuu, and his wife, Orihime. Beside Szayel, Retsu had sat down, followed by Kira and Renji. At the other end of the table, Byakuya had taken up his position.

Once everyone was gathered and quieted after brief greetings, Gin stood up and began. "I know that some of you are a bit out of the loop, but we hope this meeting will fix that. In front of each of you is a full report on the medical condition and the initial interviews I've done with each of the victims of this ring. The most worrisome part of this situation is this appearance of one of their captors in the hospital impersonating a nurse. In the file, we have all the details that Szayel has been able to provide us with. Unfortunately, despite having a clearheaded person among the victims hasn't made it a whole lot easier. We do however know more than we would have."

There was a silent moment as everyone flipped through the documents they had been provided with. Yukio arched a brow and pulled out a Nintendo DS from his pocket and started to play the device quietly, while Riruka just watched what everyone was doing almost nervously. Szayel had an almost pained expression on his face as he looked over the medical reports of each of his boys, as he'd come to think of them. It was obvious that both Byakuya and Renji, who had not viewed the official medical files yet were somewhat shocked. Ryuken, of course, knew the contents as he had compiled them.

"As you can see, these young men all have suffered severe and long term abuse of various sorts. Broken bones were common, especially smaller bones like fingers and toes, and several have had cracked facial bones as well. Tesla has use of only one eye, but Szayel says that he had already loss use of his eye when he was picked up to be trained for work in the Dollhouse. The others seem to have physically well cared for, aside from the massive dosages of drugs in their systems," Gin continued. "We know, both from the interviews, to searches by our people, almost all of these boys have no living family left, which is perhaps one of the reasons they were targeted by this Sternritter organization."

Byakuya looked over at Szayel. "You chose to go without these drugs?" he asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously.

Szayel nodded. "As I told Gin, it was a matter of taking care of my brother at first. There was no way out. The Enforcer was there, and the Watcher and the Matron would punish us severely if we tried. In a way, the drugs weren't necessary to keep us from escaping. However, they were necessary to keep the boys docile. No one comes to a brothel to fight with their…" Szayel stopped, chewing on his lip. "Not this kind of brothel, anyway. I heard of others that kept their…their…sluts aware and awake, chained of course, for the clients who wanted to have them fight back. The Matron would often tell us that if we were bad at our jobs, and our clients dropped off, they'd sell us to one of those places. And of course they did, now and then. There were many boys who left like that," he said, swallowing hard and looking at his hands. "Of course, if someone got to be too much trouble and stopped earning…that was even worse."

Byakuya, seemingly satisfied by the answer, looked back over the folder. Renji looked up, brushing his vibrant red hair from his eyes. "You mention that the boys were trained first. What exactly does that mean?"

Szayel visibly paled. "When a boy was first brought in, he was resistant, who wouldn't be? Even with the drugs, they're not a 'good dolly' as the Matron put it. We had to do what was on the card in our rooms. I'm sure you recovered them, they were the place cards that sat on the side table. We all had characters we played; I guess you could call it that. So, first, for a boy to be good, they had to be broken. This amounted to intense…intense…" Szayel blanked out for a second again, his golden eyes almost seeming to dilate completely as he remembered. "Intense torture of many sorts. It lasted from a week to three months depending on the strength of the boy's will. We never saw anything during this period, the entire time, however long it was, was spent blindfolded and deafened, and mostly gagged, unless our mouth was being used, of course…" Again, he seemed to space out and shook his head. "Once broken, they were taken to the Dollhouse and given a name and a card. Their room was decorated to reflect both, and clients began coming to see us."

"You said that the top earner disappeared every six months, and no one ever spoke of it again?" Kira asked, looking over the notes Gin had typed up.

"Every six months, on the solstice, whoever was the top earner simply disappeared, and if we asked about them we were ignored. The boys that were sold off, either to buys like Luppi, or to other brothels, the Matron and the others would gloat over them being taken away and threatened us with their fate. The top earner…they were never spoke of again," he said sadly.

Gin nodded. "Well, you have the short of it, now our problem is we have eight victims who may still be in danger by this organization. We have no safe houses made for this type of situation. Yukio has come up with a possible solution."

At his name, the blonde haired Yukio looked up from his game and carefully paused it and put it back in his sling pack at his side. "Yes, I own the Executor Building, which has several empty apartments. The top level, where Riruka, I, Wonderweiss, and Chad live has one empty apartment. These apartments are very large and would easily accommodate eight to ten people comfortably. They are not equipped with walls, but panels could be put in for some privacy, but from what I understand, the group is particularly close to each other. I would posit that the easiest solution, given that Luppi is already familiar with us, that using our building as a safe house would be most efficient. The lower levels have open apartments and officers could easily take up temporary residence in them."

Yukio nodded, reached in his pack, and pulled his game back out and returned to it quietly. Everyone blinked for a minute but nodded. Byakuya looked at the pair. "Gin explained how you bought out Luppi," he said slowly.

Riruka smiled. "Yes, I would have bought all the dears, but they would not let me."

Everyone nodded, glancing at the report on Luppi and what Gin had found. Gin looked toward the two doctors and the nurse and at Retsu. "Considering the precarious medical condition all eight are in, we think it is best for someone to stay in the same apartment as the victims if possible. Dr. Ishida recommended Dr. Ishida the younger and his wife, Orihime, who has been a nurse here on Ward 3 for the Dolls. Retsu of course, could also be on hand, as our in house medic and medical examiner."

Byakuya nodded. "This sounds reasonable, but I want you in the apartment with the group, Gin."

Gin blinked and looked up. "Mah…I thought that I would be going to a new assignment, Kuchiki, after all, the undercover work is my…"

Byakuya shook his head. "No, I've talked to Director Yamamoto and he agrees. You've had the closest contact with all the victims from the beginning, and it would be best to not expose them to too many new faces too quickly. Moving them this early is already going to be dangerous, let alone having them get used to new people. No, you should stay in the apartment with the group and Dr. Ishida and Ms. Inoue."

Gin wanted to argue the issue. Dealing with the victims was not his part of the job. However, if the Director has decided, there was no changing the issue. He smiled broadly and nodded. "Of course, it makes sense."

Byakuya turned to Yukio. "We'll send a crew to your apartment within the hour," he said to the top of the man's head. He nodded, stood and began to walk off, followed by Riruka who waved at them shyly as she left.

"He's an odd duck," Renji muttered.

"I did a little research on them," Byakuya said, having not been bothered by the unusual mannerisms during the meeting. "He's some sort of prodigy when it comes to computers, some say a savant of some sort. His maternal grandparents raised him after he got a diagnosis of autism at a young age, of course, before he showed the aptitude with computers. He started getting noticed by computer companies at eleven years old after he programmed a game he entered in this young programmer contest. He now runs his own business and is quite successful and wealthy."

Everyone nodded and Byakuya looked at Renji and Izuru. "Kira, Abarai, I want you two to go with Dr. Uryuu Ishida and Ms. Inoue and get the things they need from their home and meet me back at the Executor building in two hours. Gin, I want you to head back to station and do the interview on this Candace and see if you can find out any information on the missing victims on the six month cycle. We need to know exactly why they were here, too. See what you can find out."

Byakuya stood up and nodded and everyone else headed out to attend to their orders. Gin sat for a moment beside Szayel until the pink haired man put his hand on Gin's.

"You'll be fine with us, you know," he said softly, smiling Gin.

"Yah, that's what ya say, but I'm no good with people," Gin said. "I'd rather it be someone else."

Szayel shook his head. "You're the first person any of my boys have had comfort them. It has to be you," he said as he stood up to go prepare the others for the move later in the day.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Gin wondered what he would find in the interview room. He'd already heard that this one had spit on and tried to bite a couple of the officers when they refused to allow her to "just pay her fine" and leave. He thumbed through the file. This wasn't going to be fun. He sighed and opened the door, clicking the button for the recording devices installed in the room to come on. The woman at the table turned and glared at him.

"Who the hell are you?" she growled. "Are you going to let me out? Look, I've got the money, I'll pay whatever it is."

Gin arched a brow. "Captain Gin Ichimaru, Ms. Catnipp. Catnipp? Is that even a real name?" he said, looking up at her. Candace stared at him. He sighed. "Let's see here. You are the illegitimate daughter of Charles Rutherford, a deceased American billionaire, wow. Ah, I see that daddy was known for being a bit of a…hedonist. Let me guess, you did what you want and had dad's credit card?" Gin said with a grin. "Looks like daddy died and left you a nice, fat trust fund, along with all his other babies he never acknowledged."

"Listen you perverted old man, I am rich. You can't hold me here. I don't have a criminal record, and you have nothing on me," she said, looking away, keeping her arms crossed over her chest.

Gin sighed. "You have no record because your father had it expunged all the time, and most of it was while you were underage. I can't even guess how many times you've paid your way out."

She shrugged. "I'm my daddy's daughter, I guess. I like to do what I want. I do whatever feels good and makes me happy."

"Well, you know, maybe we can deal. I mean, you'd have to do something for me, though," Gin said, realizing that he was going to have to approach this one another way. She didn't seem bothered by anything she'd done, she just watned out of trouble.

She tilted her head to the side and smiled. "Sure. I mean, the only reason I joined the Sternritter is I could do what I wanted and no one could tell me not too. Will this get me out of here?"

Gin shook his head, leaning back in the seat. "Mah, may, I dunno, we'd have to see what you could tell us, especially about why someone named the Watcher showed up at the hospital."

Candace's eyes lit up. "Oh, she was there? They're going to get the little bitch back, you know."

Gin tried to look placid. "Oh? Why would they go to the trouble of getting anyone back?"

"You don't get it yet, but you will. These people aren't after money, they aren't after power, they're fucking _nuts_," she said with a smirk.

Gin shook his head. "I don't understand."

She shook her head, running a hand through her hair again. "I didn't buy into the shit, but I pretended to. I could beat the shit out of the brats that got outta line, and if I really wanted, I got to have at the ones they tossed out because they were shit earners. That was fun," she said with a faraway glance that said she was obviously fond of what she was remembering. "I didn't believe the old bastard was the next messiah or anything."

Gin frowned and shook his head. "Pardon me?"

"See, these people, they have this leader. Names Yhwach. Creepy fucker, man. He thinks he's the next messiah or some shit. Some of us didn't buy it, we did it for the money but we still had to pretend to pay homage to him or the ones that do believe the guy would get all pissy. Probably the creepiest one is the Embalmer. I think she belongs in the damn looney bin…" she said, shaking her head.

"The Embalmer?" Gin said, his eyes widening slightly.

"Oh yeah, see I don't know all the details, half the time I slept through his sermons, but he thinks that by drinking the blood of his 'chosen child' or some shit he revitalizes himself for six months. So, every six months, the top earner in the Dollhouse gets carted off to his secret abode, hung up on a wheel, and has every bit of blood drained out of him while Yhwach does some ceremony over it. The blood from one body lasts him six months, because he freezes it and shit, and drinks one glass each day mixed with these 'magical herbs' and does these 'spells' over it. Crazy mother fucker, man. Crazy. Next to him the Embalmer is the next one, cuz, see he keeps the bodies. He says they're 'noble and holy' sacrifices. They're all on display. Giselle is one creepy ass bitch. She talks to the bodies as she's embalming them, touching them, muttering over them. Whatever she does, makes them all translucent and weird looking. Then, he encases them in these clear vaults, and each time he drains another sacrifice, he offers a prayer at each one thanking them for what they've given him. Fucker really believes he'll die without drinking the blood," she said, almost chuckling. "They don't care what I do as long as I do my job. So you know. Drugs, sex, rock and roll, all that."

Gin swallowed bile rising in his throat at what she was saying. "How does he choose the sacrifices?"

"Oh something about being the boy with the highest allure and spirit, so you know. But he's got a special place for that orange haired brat," she said, rubbing her child. "Son of a bitch decked me once or twice when I was helping out with the Matron after he'd gone off on a client. He would come by, actually come to the Dollhouse, to see him, watch the cameras down in the payment office where I was, while clients were with him. Perverted old man. Bet he beat one off when he went back to his little crypt or whatever it was," she said, shrugging.

"Where is his base?" Gin asked, starting to feel a rising in his chest.

"Only one that knows that is his second, his 'High Priest', and the Embalmer. The rest of us were blindfolded when we were taken there, he didn't trust anyone except those two," she said with a shrug.

Gin got up and looked back for a second. "So he'll try to get Ichigo back."

She smirked. "Oh, he'll send every single one of the people he can to get him back. He thinks he'll die without his blood. He thinks if the ceremony isn't done on the solstice, the blood is spoiled, and worthless, and he'd have to wait until the next one. He doesn't think he could wait for his 'elixir of life' as he calls it."

Gin nodded and left, listening as she yelled behind him about the deal and how long before she could leave. He shut the door with a hollow and haunted look on his face as he headed back to the hospital. It was beginning to look like staying close to the boy was going to be more important than ever.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Several hours later, Gin stood in the absolutely huge, open apartment and shook his head. The transfer had gone without incident, though they'd had to group everyone together and it was only with Szayel's help that calm was maintained in the van they used to transport them. When they'd arrived at the Executor building, the apartment had been set up with partitions between sets of cots in the back. A sliding screen had been installed between the communal bedroom and the rest of the apartment. A large couch, chairs, and lamps had been set in the living room along with a large TV with a DVD player and a game system. A computer had been set up over to the side on a simple desk with a chair.

The kitchen had been fully stocked with foods of all kinds, both premade and prepackaged, and ingredients for about anything someone wanted to cook. Gin knew that the shinigami would have brought some things, but he suspected that Yukio and the others that lived in the building had provided a lot of the things here. The dining area had a large table with eight chairs, and there was a bar off to the side with four stools to it.

In the middle of the living room was a huge pile of clothes and textiles of all sorts, men's, women's, children's, sheets, blankets, stuffed animals, and Gin couldn't tell what else. It was a ton of stuff, and while he guessed they'd emptied the lost and found at the station, this was far more than could have come from there. He guessed that the people in the building had provided for this as well. He smiled to himself. It seemed the initial suspicion he was received with had to do more with their tight knit community than anything else.

He looked up as the boys that were well enough to get around started sifting through the items on the floor, while Szayel, Uryuu, and Orihime got those suffering the most from the withdrawal symptoms settled into beds. Luppi, who had been staying next door with Wonderweiss, had decided to stay there since he quiet liked the quiet it offered. Gin had agreed as long as there was an officer stationed in the hallway at all times. Being on the upper floor had advantages of course. He saw Wonderweiss was going through the clothes and going around and handing seemingly random articles of clothing to the different boys. Some were wary of him, but Luppi told them he was okay. Of course, Ichigo had chosen the farthest, corner bed and told everyone except Szayel to kindly "fuck off".

Gin found himself leaning against the bar and watching Wonderweiss hand out the strangest combinations of clothes to people with amusement. Luppi talked a lot around him, which was encouraging, to say the least.

Riruka came and hopped up on the bar beside him and watched. "So what's the deal with him? I mean, the whole deal?" Gin said as he watched.

She smiled back at him. "Well, we went to Europe a few years ago to deal with Yukio's family, his father's side is Dutch-German, and while we were in Germany, we ran into Wonderweiss. The poor boy could get no peace. He had a serial killer for a father. The 'Dresden Ripper' and 'Chikatilo of Germany' was what he was called. A friend of Yukio's family was taking care of him, but she'd gotten ot he end of her rope. Constant nosy reporters, death threats, tabloid stories, all because Wonderweiss was the killer's son. Wonderweiss himself witnessed many of the murders, actually. He was a child, he couldn't do anything. So to this day, he has a heart of gold. He wanted to help immediately when he found out about Luppi. Of course, he has talent with computers, so Yukio saw this as a great benefit. So we brought him back to Japan with us. He picked up the language and customs incredibly fast, which surprised most people, but not me and Yukio," she said with a smile.

Gin tipped his head. "Why not you two?"

"We're both on the spectrum, different places, of course, but because of that we know things about Wonderweiss that other people wouldn't notice. His lack of speech doesn't indicate lack of intelligence. Most people make that assumption, and it is a terrible wrong one," she said with a smile. "Yukio doesn't like people, and he can't stand the idea of sex."

"I thought you two were together?" he said, glancing at her.

"We are. We have a romantic relationship, not a sexual one," she said, kicking her feet thoughtfully back and forth as Wonderweiss put Findorr in a pink tutu with a pair of black denim jeans under it and a bright yellow long sleeved shirt with black stars on it. "Sex isn't necessary for everyone you know," she said, looking around.

Gin nodded. "I never thought of it, I suppose. I haven't been in a relationship in a while, so I guess I forget what it's like," he said with a smirk. "I bust prostitution rings and brothels and madams, so I have to be flexible with what I portray myself as," he said as he watched the goings on. Wonderweiss had found a bright green bandana to replace the hospital patch on Tesla's eye, and managed to convince him to wear a frilly looking white pirate shirt and a pair of leopard print leggings. It was impressive, because he did all this without uttering a word to any of them.

Riruka nodded. "What do you go for anyway?" she asked. "I mean, boys, girls, both, what?"

Gin smirked. "Ah, what's here," he said, motioning to his chest. "The outside doesn't matter," he said thoughtfully as Wonderweiss continued his mission to dress all the hospital gown wearing dolls.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

A large, heavy figure moved through the shadows that surrounded the building known as the Executor. Cang Du enjoyed this type of work for the Sternritter. He honestly didn't give two shits about the nutcase that ran the place, but it was a job. A long time ago, too long, he sometimes thought, he'd been a member of a triad family. He'd been a good bodyguard and enforcer for them. Then, the entire family was decimated in a feud, and in the end, instead of dying, he went independent. He'd worked for a lot of shady folks, but no steady work. When he met with Quilge Opie, and been offered a long term Enforcer position he'd taken it immediately.

As a member of the Sternritter, he usually was the one that got to track down the bastards that damaged the dolls. It wasn't that they cared about them getting beat up or slapped around, but doing so required additional payment and compensation. Woe was to the client that permanently disfigured or killed one of the dolls. He'd taken care of one or two of those in the years he'd worked there. He also helped with body disposal and transport of those that were sold to other brothels, and of course, the bi-annual transport of the 'chosen child'. That 'chosen child' was the reason he was sneaking around outside this building.

He spotted the woman he was meeting, the Watcher. Now, she was a crazy bitch. She had that look to her eyes that just exuded insane. She was one of those that bought the messiah bullshit that the leader of the Sternritter preached. Meninas had lost her mind, from what he could tell. He knew she'd grown up in Ireland, and when her parents, older sister, and grandfather died at around the same time, she decided God had it in for her, so she needed to find a 'savior' to protect her from God. She found Yhwach. Now she had bought whole hog into his bullshit, and was always prattling on about him.

"Hey, Meni, what's happening so far?" he said as he approached. She was wearing dark clothes and a hat to cover her obnoxiously dyed purple hair.

"Good evening, Enforcer," she said formally, bowing at him. He rolled his eyes. "They've moved the Chosen Child into that building, I don't know what level. The rest of our sweet ones are in there as well. However, there are many guards."

Cang nodded as he looked over the building. It wasn't going to be easy to get into a place like that, especially if they were smart and moved them to the top level. He sighed. They only had two weeks until the Solstice. This was not going to be easy at all…


End file.
